Federal court rejects Florida's welfare drug-testing appeal

A federal appeals court upheld the temporary ban on Florida’s drug-testing
for welfare recipients Tuesday, saying that a lawsuit against the state had a
good chance of succeeding.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta sided with a lower court decision, stating that Florida failed to show that
the drug testing plan was so critical that the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable
searches by the government, should be suspended.

The decision—which did not weigh in on the ultimate
constitutionality question—is the latest development in Gov. Rick Scott's controversial drug testing push. In 2011,Scott and the Florida Legislature instituted a
program for drug-testing all recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families. Luis Lebron, a single-father and TANF applicant who refused to take
the test on constitutional grounds, filed a lawsuit with help from the American Civil Liberties Union.

In authoring the court’s opinion, Circuit Judge Rosemary
Barkett said that Florida
had not proven that its drug-testing program serves a “special” or “immediate” need,
or that it even protected children in families with substance abuse.

“There is nothing so special or immediate about the
government’s interest in ensuring that TANF recipients are drug free so as to warrant
suspension of the Fourth Amendment,” Barkett wrote. “The only known and shared
characteristic of the individuals who would be subjected to Florida’s mandatory drug testing program is
that they are financially needy families with children.”

Scott vowed to appeal the decision and take his fight to the Supreme Court.

“The court’s ruling today is disturbing," he said in a statement. "Welfare is 100 percent about helping children. Welfare is taxpayer money to help people looking for jobs who have children. Drug use by anyone with children looking for a job is totally destructive. This is fundamentally about protecting the wellbeing of Florida families. We will protect children and families in our state, and this decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.”

The court relied on a similar case in Georgia, which
struck down the state’s program for requiring all political candidates to take
drug tests. That case found that Georgia did not show that there was
a drug problem among elected officials, and the law was mostly “symbolic.”

In the rejecting Florida’s
appeal to the lower court's preliminary injunction, Barkett took a similar position.

“The State has presented no evidence that simply because an
applicant for TANF benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug
addicted or prone to fraudulent and neglectful behavior,” she wrote.

The ACLU's associate legal director Maria Kayanan said the ruling was a vindication for struggling families who apply for government assistance.

"The state of Florida can’t treat an entire segment of our community like suspected criminals simply because they are poor and are trying to get temporary assistance from the government to support their families,” said Kayanan, who was lead counsel on the case.

Florida
also passed a law last year requiring drug testing for all state workers, but
that issue is also tangled in constitutional challenges and litigation.